A Lark Ascending

Anita?

Loose Tubes at Brecon Market Hall. One of my all-time favourite bands - I never thought I'd get to see them live. As wonderful as I'd imagined - old favourites and pieces I'd not heard. Great, quirky arrangements; turn on a dime ensemble playing, fabulous solos, idiot dancing from Django Bates and droll banter from Ashley Slater. Above all, jazz as fun rather than an object for a post-doctoral thesis. The horns did the old leaving the stage and wandering around bit on the encore - only within the market hall. Just as well - the streets were full of drunken shepherds. Part of their brief mini-revival series of concerts though Slater insisted it was their last gig ever (I'm sure he said that 25 years ago too!). No Morris dancers on the streets of Brecon. Odd.

Look forward to that Hall/Haden disc. Don't miss his 'country' record - Rambling Boy. Not in his usual styles but very enjoyable.

Final bit of folk indulgence. The Old Swan Band. One of a number of bands who revolutionised the folk dance scene in the 70s by digging around for English tunes as opposed to the Scottish/Irish that dominated at the time (check those Fairport/Steeleye albums and try and find an instrumental piece that is English - Fairport did do a Morris tune in the Full House line-up, to be fair). Great performance of what should really be danced to (though I'm like Phil Collins in that area). The Furrow Collective - a sort of young folk supergroup, all members having separate careers and albums but coming together here for some superb arrangements of traditional song. Then I had to go and see the Long Hill Ramblers again and buy their CD.

Only a couple of concerts yesterday, but pearlers both. The Young Coppers - 3 grandchildren of Bob Copper singing the Copper family songbook. They go back into the 19thC and became a mainstay of the 50s/60s revival - and electric folk movement where I came in. Lovely moment at the end where one of the singer's two 6/7 year old daughters joined in, knowing all the words. Followed by the Long Hill ramblers, also from the. Brighton area. American old timey stuff - Charlie Poole etc- superbly played, with a great singer who managed to sound idiomatic without lapsing into stage American. Evening began with an astounding young banjo player from Stafford! Didn't care for his songs but the instrumentals were superb. Totally surreal moment sat in a hotel function room probably used to tea dances listening to a lengthy piece based on Indian music played on an American instrument by someone from the English Midlands. Finally Scottish guitarist Tony McManus. I have a couple of his records, blunted a bit by a sprinkling of Celtic mist pixie dust. Here he was jaw droppingly wonderful. Mainly Scottish and Irish tunes. But a hilarious sequence where he played the opening to 'Stairway to Heaven' in half-a-dozen different styles, culminating in Steve Reich! Ended with a lengthy Bach piece that had the room spellbound.

Water is guilty - it doesn't need framing. If last night's torrential downpour is anything to go by. Oh, the country life.

Water frame. Hargreaves was the spinning Jenny. No wonder Gove despaired at the state of the nation's historical knowledge.

I might just join a workshop and try that.

More Morris dancing than you can shake a stick at. With bells on. The Welsh band had clog dancing, as did the Scottish band. This should be Evan Parker's next project. Free improv sax and clog dancing. Yesterday, a rather frail but spirited Roy Bailey with John Kirkpatrick (sporting Morris injuries with a black eye...he knows how to suffer for his art). Saw Bailey with Leon Rossellson around 1983 in the darkest days of the Third Cold War - one of the most electrifying political performances I've seen. If he'd asked us to storm Downing Street I'd have gone. Bought an LP instead. In the afternoon supergroup of Martin Simpson, Nancy Kerr and Andy Cutting (I'm stalking him). Half of The Full English project of last year. Great mix of English, Appalachian and Blues. Lisa Knapp opened in the evening - got a cool response. Very oddball using lots of loops and electronics and a keening voice. I've really taken to her - would like to see her in a full concert. Finally Martin and Eliza Carthy, as brilliant as ever. Martin must be the performer I've seen most over the last 40 years. A superb example of how to be a legend and then behave like an ordinary bloke. Oh, and I was chatting to a couple there who are good friends with Art Themen. Small world.

More fun at Sidmouth. In a era where most of the jazz festivals seem to play safe it's nice to come to something so well balanced between the established and the new, the professional and the eager amateur. Inevitably you hit things that don't appeal but among yesterday's best: Calan - a young Welsh band (with bagpipes) I'd heart on record. Very exciting, incredibly accomplished for their age. Gren Bartley Band - will snap his two records up when I get back to home. Excellent song writing, guitar and harmonies, owing more to American gravelly folk than anything British. Breabach - marvellous Scottish band with two sets of bagpipes! A bit misty Celtic twilight in the songs (a common feature of Scottish/Irish music since the 80s) but utterly thrilling in the instrumentals (which fortunately dominate). What can jazz and classical concerts learn from folk? The informality, banter, lack of over-seriousness. What can folk concerts learn from jazz/classical? You don't have to keep seeking audience participation (though I'd love to attend a Rite of Spring where the maestro asks the audience to put their hands together).

Andy Cutting perfect yesterday in a small venue. Gorgeous tunes from England and France. Lovely between tune stories from the life of a jobbing melodian player. Yves Lambert Trio in the afternoon - taking a rest from making perfume to make knees-up Québécois music. Now watching zillions of Morris teams on the seafront in the morning.sunshine.

Wonderful weather in Heaven and Devon. Though Friday was very wet all day.

Chris Wood in two different contexts. First, the duo with Andy Cutting (sqeezeboxes) that propelled him to fame in the 90s. Their first concert together in many a year. Mainly English tunes but played in a slow, gradually unfolding manner that at times sounded like minimalism. Wood's vocals (rare here) reminded me of Lowell George - avoiding the expected beats, yet finding their own logic to creat an almost floating quality. Zen Morris. In the evening a solo song concert mixing up Wood's by now vast catalogue of breathtaking songs with some new ones. Wood sets the standard in contemporary English folky songwriting and performance. Now awaiting a morning solo set by Cutting. All squeezebox...the jazz fan's nightmare.

At the 60th Sidmouth Folk Festival in glorious Devon. Yesterday a nice local concert topped by the wonderfully voiced Jackie Oates (an honorary Devonian). Great Scottish concert in the evening with a bunch of teenage fiddlers, a beautiful solo singer (Fiona Hunter) and the ever youthful Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham. More Devon this morning with excellent singer Jim Causley. All carried out with humour, great banter and tremendous musical skill.

Grant - Jean Edward Smith. Comes across as a very decent man in this interpretation.

Not dogmatic at all. Listening to versions is a matter of choice like anything else. I enjoy listening to things like Building a Library where people with expertise and considerable experience make comparisons based on depth of knowledge, awareness of the score(s) etc. I enjoy listening to music I know live or on the radio. But stacking up masses of celebrity recordings of the same pieces? You get the impression here that listening to music is all about owning great stacks of recordings by approved and validated celebrity maestros. Commentary rarely amounts to more than name-checking the famous names. These sets seem to very consciously play to that market. I'm always uncomfortable with recordings that put the performers name in bigger letters than the composers. Seems to invert importance to my way of thinking.

I'd say listening to interpretations will give you a deeper appreciation of listening to interpretations. You can learn to love and understand the music off one recording.

Oh, I can see the appeal to someone starting out at the prices offered. I just find the marketing angle interesting. How do you sell Beethoven to someone who has Beethoven? Well, you knock up a box and tell them they've not really heard Beethoven unless they've heard Schumfeldicker's Beethoven. It's a variation on reselling the same jazz recordings with promised sonic upgrades (or convincing us we really need to upgrade our mobile or computer). We all like to buy stuff. The record companies are churning out the stuff. Like the commercial world on general it's about both responding to demand but also creating a demand for stuff we didn't know we needed.

These box sets are all about marketing - the way the record companies realise their assets. They're presented as a quick, off the shelf acquisition of approved, validated culture. It's not surprising that they promote the idea that to really 'appreciate' music you must play maestros and divas (preferably dead ones) and amass multiple interpretations. When I see the lorry loads of these sets being bought in this thread It's clear the marketing strategy is working perfectly. Buy 'em cheap. Stack 'em high. I can see why these sets are attractive to people wanting to explore 'classical' music and build a core collection; or to more experienced listeners who are in a position to notice differences in interpretation (rather than parrot what they are told they should be thinking). But for me the real thrill still comes from buying a single disc of unknown music and then following that composer or style, single disc by disc. You usually end up in very unexpected places. With these mega boxes you rarely get beyond 'the canon'. Which is fine if you are happy buying into canons (of composition or performance). I agree with Lon that you don't need any great expertise to listen to this music. Most of it will reveal its interests and beauties with repeat listening (the idea that you need to listen to different versions to reveal that is again a myth the record companies are all to keen for us to believe). But reading about it, if time or inclination allow, can add so much more, providing historical context and the beginnings of an understanding of how classical music is structured. That in turn increases the pleasure of listening.

John Etheridge, John Marshall, Roy Babbington from the olden days - more mid-70s than classic era. And Theo Travis who I'm sure you know from recent collaborations with Fripp and Steven Wilson. More in that mid-70s fusion style than the wonders of the Elton Dean years. Their last album 'Burden of Proof' is very enjoyable - a bitt riffy in places but some nice atmospheric parts, benefiting from Travis' colour on flute. I'd have liked to have heard them with Tippett. All strong musicians who might just betaken somewhere else by a dedicated impov man like Tippett. There's a review of a recent concert here: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/manchester-jazz-festival-review-soft-7465887

Just noticed the current version of Soft Machine are doing a concert with Keith Tippett in St Ives in Sept (as part of the folk festival - the mind boggles). They seem to have done a London gig together. Be curious to see that.

As a kid I hated any kind of dressing up in bands. I came of age with the tea shirt and jeans 'we only care about the music' type of rock band. The whole glam thing was a real turn-off. In fact I remember being really miffed when Peter Gabriel started dressing up as flowers in Genesis. I've carried that aversion to all fields of music - when I become world dictator it will be a capital offence for orchestral musicians to wear formal dress. Needless to say, I have never been known for my sartorial elegance.

The article seems to be more about 'The Album' as an organisational vehicle rather than a music carrier. Digital methods certainly seem to have brought the single back to life, no longer restricted to what is released as a single. As a teenager on a limited budget I would have loved the ability to buy just one track off a record where nothing else interested me. Can't see bands outside the straight pop field abandoning the opportunities that organising a collection of music in a particular form offers. After all, this predates the album as we know it by centuries. If anything, it throws open possibilities - no longer confined to two bursts of 20 minutes or1 of 79. Lots of hope for future Wagners.

'Folk in Cornwall' - Rupert White Nice little locally produced account of the 60s/70s scene in Cornwall. Beatniks who couldn't quite manage to escape 'the man' by rolling the roads of the USA or Europe came to Cornwall. Helped nourish the likes of Wizz Jones, Ralph McTell, Michael Chapman, Clive Palmer (early ISB), Donovan (the one who made the money). By chance I'm currently camped one mile from the site of one of the key folk clubs - The Count House at Botallack. Idyllic setting for a club. I loved the mention of how gigs in the summer would halt to watch the sunset over the Atlantic and then resume. I was living in Newquay as a kid when the scene was well established (1968-72) but it was beyond my experience. Though oddly I knew it was there as my chemistry teacher (John Sleep) was involved - he appears in the book constantly, playing bass and organising gigs, especially at The Folk Cottage near Newquay. There are clearly still echoes. Wizz was playing in Penzance last week and Michael Chapman at Botallack earlier in the month. So near, so far.

One of the advantages of not owing top of the range audio equipment is that once the record starts playing you can't hear what the musicians are wearing.